SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Gabby Williams had 25 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, Kiah Stokes added 14 rebounds and three blocked shots, and the Golden State Valkyries won Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals by beating the defending champion Las Vegas Aces 71-60 on Sunday.
A’ja Wilson scored 24 points while Chelsea Gray contributed 16 points for Las Vegas, which lost guard Jewell Loyd to a left leg injury early in the third quarter, and was held to its lowest point total of the season. The team said it was being evaluated and there was no immediate word from coach Becky Hammon afterward.
Playing to chants of “Gabby! Gabby!” From the sold-out crowd at Chase Center, Williams scored 18 of his points on 6-of-10 shooting in the first half, including a 3-pointer that put Golden State ahead 32-23 with 5:43 left before halftime.
This hometown “Ballhalla” crowd transformed the arena into a sea of purple T-shirts and energy that the Valkyries relied on so much in their first two seasons. Fans waved and cheered as the final buzzer sounded and the confetti fell.
Game 2 of the best-of-five series will take place Wednesday night at Chase Center.
“The goal here is to win our home games, so yeah, we did well in the first game, but the Aces are championship caliber, they know what it takes to win,” Stokes said. “I know in their locker room they’re not happy with the way they played, so their only goal is to come to us and win games, so they still have the opportunity to do that. Going forward, we know we have to come out on Wednesday and make sure we set the tone again.”
Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase was well enough to coach after falling to the sideline near Golden State’s bench with 1:40 left Friday night in a 77-73 comeback victory to clinch the first-round series against Dallas. She was examined by a doctor during Saturday’s day off.
Jackie Young’s 3-pointer with 8:25 left pulled Las Vegas within 58-53. Wilson, the WNBA’s leading scorer and reigning MVP, made 6 of 11 shots in the first half for 15 points for the third-seeded Aces.
It was a low-scoring, defensive game in which neither team shot particularly well – the Valkyries 37.7% to Las Vegas’ 33.9% – after both went the distance in the best of three rounds to advance.
Valkyries point guard Veronica Burton struggled on the offensive end, missing a layup and a three-pointer during one third-quarter stretch and sitting out at the 7:29 mark. Nakase then went to Kaitlyn Chen for the rest of the match and she scored 11 points.
Burton had no health problems.
“She looks amazing and she feels great,” Nakase said. “Kaitlyn Chen was fresh and I’m playing a new Kaitlyn Chen.”
The mix-and-match rotations worked after Golden State shot just 31.4 percent — 11 for 35 and 5 of 15 from 3 — in the first half. Newcomer Aminata Gueye came off the bench to score nine points in over 12 minutes for the Valkyries. She signed with the team on September 20 after playing with Williams and Janelle Salaun on the French team during the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup.
Salaun received a warm ovation when she entered the game with 2:25 left in the first quarter after being named the WNBA Sixth Player of the Year before the game.
Kayla Thornton also pulled down 11 rebounds to give the Valkyries eight points, who dominated the rebounds with a 52-25 advantage.
“We were really connected tonight, I felt like we were communicating, I felt like we were showing them bodies and then it was all about rebounding,” Williams said. “I said after the game that KT and Kiah really won this game for us, limited them to one possession and gave us extra possessions.”
Hammon called it one of his team’s “most excruciating games of the season,” in which they were beaten.
“We lost the game on the boards, there’s no doubt about that,” Hammon said, noting that all his team had talked about over the past 48 hours was rebounding and blocking.
Golden State was 3 of 10 on 3-pointers in the first quarter and finished just 7 of 24 from deep, also overcoming 14 turnovers that led to 11 Las Vegas points.
Aces forward Stephanie Talbot missed the game with a left leg injury.
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